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Google Classroom: Making your favorite educational tools work better together

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Digital sketch of several icons and metaphors that represent the new Classroom launches

For educators, there are always a few top of mind questions: how can they optimize their time and find ways to help each student learn effectively? With Classroom, we’re working to help solve these problems so educators can focus more on teaching and students can experience new approaches to make learning more personal.

We’re announcing new features to help tackle complex challenges, like supporting individualized learning at scale. We’re also developing deeper integrations with key tools that educators and administrators use on a day-to-day basis, making everyday tasks, like grading, creating assignments, and managing class lists easier.

Practice makes progress

Built with adaptive learning technology, practice sets is a new feature in Google Classroom that enables teachers to transform their existing content into interactive assignments. When working on an assignment, students receive instant feedback on their answers, and real-time support through visual explainers and videos if they get stuck along the way. For teachers, once they set up their initial questions, practice sets provide automated grading and insights to help them quickly identify gaps in students’ understanding so they can shape future lessons. Practice sets will be globally available in beta, and in English only, for Google Workspace for Education customers with Education Plus or the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. If you’re interested in trying out the beta, express interest here.

Create interactive lessons and simplify grading with your favorite EdTech tools (coming soon)

With Classroom add-ons, teachers and students can soon access custom learning and grading experiences from more than 15 EdTech favorites including IXL, Pear Deck, Kahoot! and Nearpod. They can sign into Classroom and each add-on with the same login, removing the need to remember multiple passwords or to navigate to multiple websites to access classwork. Teachers can more easily review student work with the Classroom grader view and grades will automatically transfer to the Classroom gradebook.

In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out this feature to Classroom users with Google for Education Plus or the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. Admins will be able to choose which add-ons they enable for their schools. Subscribe to the Google for Education newsletter to get notified when this feature is available.

Set up classes automatically with expanded SIS syncing

Last year, in partnership with Clever, we added the ability to sync the rosters from your student information system (SIS) to Classroom, so classes could be automatically created and updated. Soon, we’ll be expanding to 15 more countries with the help of SIS integration expert, Elevate Data Sync. Admins can sync class lists and timetables directly with most major student information systems, removing the need for teachers to set up their courses manually. Now, they can just click “accept” when their course is created. Schools with Education Plus that are interested in trying this out with Elevate Data Sync can sign up for the beta today.

Prioritizing your top requests

We spend a lot of time with teachers and schools to make sure we’re developing new features and products that help with what they need most. We read every piece of feedback that is shared, and use that information to prioritize top feature requests. Here are some of the latest improvements:

  • YouTube in Google Classroom: It’s now easier to find, evaluate, and add YouTube videos into your lessons from Classroom with larger thumbnail images and the ability to filter videos by duration. And when you or your students are watching a video, you’ll see a larger video player.
  • Grade export: We’ve added action-oriented messages that guide teachers as they sync grades with their SIS.
  • Notifications: Our notification emails are getting a refresh, so teachers and students can quickly scan emails and find key information. Later this year, teachers will even be able to reply to students from within their email notifications in Gmail. And for those of you who access Google Classroom on your mobile device, we’re adding email settings functionality – so that everyone can now tailor notification settings for both email and push notifications.

In interviews with dozens of education leaders, we’ve heard three main themes: You need better visibility, deeper insights, and ways to support teachers at scale. We’re working on several new features, built specifically for education leaders, that will address these needs. Stay tuned for the chance to join our alpha and beta pilots, and expect lots more updates about how we’re empowering education leaders to achieve their goals and drive instructional impact.

We know that training helps build confidence when using new tools in the Classroom. Whether you’re just starting out or exploring advanced features, we have three new video-based trainings covering features that help simplify class management and accelerate grading, and lessons for students too. You can easily find all of these new lessons (available in English), and more training and instructional resources, on the Applied Digital Skills website (available now) or the Teacher Center (available later this month).

Ready to shape the future of our products? Sign up for our Google for Education Pilot Program, which is available globally.

[“source=blog.google”]

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Education

USF RESEARCHERS PARTNER WITH NONPROFITS CODEVA, TERC ON NSF-FUNDED PROJECT TO BRING COMPUTER SCIENCE INTO VIRGINIA’S MIDDLE SCHOOL HISTORY CLASSROOMS

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Teacher with students in a classroom on laptops

University of South Florida (USF) professor Michael J. Berson, PhD, is partnering with Virginia-based nonprofit CodeVA and math-science nonprofit TERC on a multi-year research project to broaden middle school students’ participation in meaningful and culturally relevant computer science instruction during their history classes.

The project, “An Interdisciplinary Approach to Supporting Computer Science in Rural Schools,” will develop a computer science program for teaching history to underserved middle school students in the state of Virginia. The project is supported by a four-year, $2.99 million grant funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Discovery Research PreK-12 (DRK-12) program, and was developed as part of a national push to increase computer science K-12 literacy and participation in computer science-related fields and industries among underrepresented and minoritized student populations.

Michael J. Berson, a Professor of Social Science Education, will serve as co-principal investigator for the project. He and Ilene R. Berson, a Professor of Early Childhood Education who will also contribute to the project, have collaborated on groundbreaking international research in digital citizenship and cybersecurity for students that has informed global policy and practice.

“We have an opportunity to build upon our ongoing research with young children that has informed our instructional approaches to foster transversal competencies with tangible coding technologies,” Michael J. Berson said. “A project-based approach to geohistorical teaching and learning can provide a range of opportunities for students to investigate and apply computational thinking and problem-solving skills within the context of projects that are of ‘real world’ interest.”

The research project aims to broaden access to meaningful computer science instruction for students in rural areas across Virginia by using techniques such as modeling and simulation to allow students to explore historical events from multiple lenses and by providing sustainable training and resources on culturally relevant teaching techniques to support history teachers statewide.

The project will be conducted in collaboration with TERC, an independent research-based nonprofit organization focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, and CodeVA, a nonprofit that partners with schools, parents, and communities to bring equitable computer science education to all of Virginia’s students. CodeVA’s state-funded training programs have served approximately 3500 teachers since 2014 and focus heavily on building schools’ capacity to provide basic training to their faculty, enabling them to meet Virginia’s computer science education mandate.

“This exciting project supports a more inclusive understanding of history by allowing students to explore and bring to life key concepts using CS and computational tools,” said Bryan Wallace, CodeVA’s education community manager and principal investigator for the project.

[“source=usf”]

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Education

USF research team receives $1 million grant to launch oral history project exploring civics education, varying systems of government

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Map of Florida

The University of South Florida (USF) College of Education was awarded a $1 million grant by the Florida Department of Education to develop a new series of oral history resources that will be used by educators, school districts and the public as part of Florida’s revised civics education curriculum.

The project was launched in response to Florida’s Civic Education Curriculum (HB 5, 2021), legislation passed last year to aid in students’ development of civic responsibility and knowledge and to help students understand their roles, rights and responsibilities as residents of the state.

The oral history resources will include videos that provide “Portraits in Patriotism,” a series of personal stories featuring diverse individuals who demonstrate civic-minded qualities, including first-person accounts from victims of other nations’ governing philosophies that differ from those of the United States.

The project will include printable resources, augmented reality activities and professional development workshops for K-12 teachers on how to use these resources in their classrooms. All materials will align with Florida’s civics education standards for K-12 schools.

The USF College of Education research team includes College of Education faculty members Barbara Shircliffe, Kathy Bradley-Klug, Deanna Michael and David Rosengrant. The team expects to have resources publicly available beginning this summer.

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Education

A Simpler Way on Student Loans

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

The Should-Be Solution to the Student-Debt Problem - The New York Times

Yesterday some reports on Twitter indicated that the moratorium on student loan payments would be extended for another few months. Robert Kelchen responded that the next Republican administration is likely just to eliminate the federal student loan program; by making repayment unlikely, Democrats may have inadvertently doomed the program altogether.

I could see the logic of that position, even though I’d hate to see it happen.

It reminded me, though, that there’s a better way. It’s more consistent with American political culture and our general notions of fairness. It would prevent people from getting buried under compounding interest but wouldn’t let them off the hook for what they borrowed. It’s even easy mathematically and administratively.

Cancel the interest. Require people to pay back every penny they borrowed, but no more than that.

Below is the piece I wrote in November of 2020 outlining the idea. I offer it again as a politically and economically sustainable middle-ground compromise that would do some real good. It’s certainly far saner than a series of very short extensions, followed by programmatic collapse.

It holds up pretty well, if I do say so myself …

I’ve been thinking about Congress. For normal people, that’s not a good sign, but I’ll plead “recovering political scientist” on this one.

The House is still Democratic, but barely, and the coalition includes some folks from conservative districts who are wary of anything too progressive. The Senate is likely to remain Republican, but even if the Democrats win both Georgia runoffs and Vice President Harris gets to cast tie-breaking votes, the coalition will still have to carry folks like Senator Manchin, from West Virginia, whose voting record is less than solidly blue. And if historical patterns hold, the party of the incumbent president usually loses seats in the first midterm election, so even a very tenuous majority is likely to be fleeting.

Yes, I’d love to see all student loans canceled. But I just don’t see that happening, and if it does, the victory would likely be Pyrrhic. The idea of wiping away obligations for one set of people runs so counter to American political culture that even if it got through, it would likely feed a backlash that would do far more damage than the reform would do good.

But here’s where I part company from the usual compromise proposals. I don’t think that capping the relief at any given dollar figure makes it any better. The layperson’s objection to debt relief isn’t the cost, really; it’s the concept. Capping the cost is exactly wrong; it leaves the concept (and therefore the opposition) intact, and waters down the positive impact. And the usual playbook of “only for people earning under x dollars per year” isn’t better. That leads to all sorts of paperwork nightmares, delays, requests for exceptions and financial shenanigans. (As a resident of a wildly expensive state, I can also attest that income thresholds that might seem reasonable in, say, Kansas are manifestly unreasonable here.) Both the cap on the amount forgiven, and the cap on earnings by those whose loans are forgiven, miss the point. They water down the positive impact without doing anything to reduce political opposition. In the language of Twitter, they’re self-owns.

Instead, I propose a measure that would strike most people as fair, would stand a chance of gaining and maintaining political support, would reduce administrative costs, and would actually do some good on the ground.

Cancel the interest. Remove interest from student loans. Every dollar paid back counts against principal.

For people who take a decade or more to pay back their loans, the interest can become a major part of what they eventually pay. That’s especially true for folks with older loans, when the rates were higher. Students who owe $50,000 or more can easily wind up paying five figures in interest. Worse, if they fall behind, the interest compounds. But zeros don’t compound.

Zero interest would be easy to administer. You wouldn’t need income caps or verification, so the usual shenanigans—and the cost of trying to police those shenanigans—would fade away. Overhead costs would drop, and systems would be much simpler to run.

The political appeal is clear: people have to pay back what they borrowed. They’re responsible for their decisions. But in recognition that things got out of hand in the last couple of decades—public disinvestment in public higher education, most notably—we could stop trying to turn a profit on the debt. Pay back all that you borrowed, but only what you borrowed. No more, no less.

There’s a simplicity and fairness to that proposal that could make it politically achievable and sustainable.

Over time, of course, a much better solution involves both sustained and robust operating support for public colleges and universities and basic income support for students. Even free tuition doesn’t address the opportunity cost of education; when you’re struggling to get enough food, opportunity cost alone can be prohibitive. This is miles away from anything resembling a panacea. But I think we’re miles away from a political environment in which a panacea could pass.

Combine zero interest with free community college tuition, and you’re starting to make a real difference. (For a fallback option to completely free community college—one that seems more in line with American political culture—see my “Buy One Year, Get One Free” proposal here.) These moves don’t prevent more dramatic steps in the future, but they offer immediate and tangible relief to some people who very much need it.

Some economists might object that zero nominal interest amounts to negative real interest, given inflation. But that’s a feature, not a bug. Young people who are trying to start families and careers—or working parents already in the thick of it—could use some relief. If that relief comes in a subtle way that doesn’t strike anybody as a handout, then everybody wins.

Let every dollar paid back count against principal. People have to repay every penny that they borrowed, but no more than that. Nobody gets a freebie, and nobody gets buried under compounding interest. Fair is fair. That might get enough support to survive the midterms.

[“source=insidehighered”]

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Education

IIT JAM 2022 Response Sheets and Question Papers Declared; Answer Key Expected Soon

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

IIT JAM 2022 Response Sheet and Question Papers Released

IIT Roorkee has released the IIT JAM 2022 response sheets and question papers for each subject. Although IIT Roorkee has not announced the date of releasing the IIT JAM 2022 answer key date, it is expected that the provisional answer keys will be declared by the end of this week. IIT JAM 2022 exam was held on February 13, in slots. The computer-based exam was conducted for a duration of three hours for seven subjects in 103 cities across India. Let us take a look at the procedure to download the IIT JAM 2022 response sheets and question papers.

How to Download IIT JAM 2022 Response Sheets

Candidates will have to follow the steps given below to download the response sheets for the IIT JAM 2022 exam.

  • Visit the official website of IIT JAM – jam.iitr.ac.in.
  • Click on the ticker text ‘Candidates who have appeared can login to view responses’.
  • Enter Email ID and Password.
  • Enter the correct answer to the Arithmetic Expression.
  • Click on ‘Submit’.
  • Check and download the answer or response sheets.

How to Download IIT JAM 2022 Question Papers

The subject-wise IIT JAM 2022 question papers can be downloaded by following the steps below:

  • Visit the IIT JAM 2022 website.
  • Click on the tab JAM 2022 Question Papers.
  • Click on the ‘Download’ tab subsequent to the subjects/papers.
  • Save the document in PDF format.

Once the answer keys would be declared, candidates will be able to file objections within the stipulated date by paying a fee of INR 500. The IIT JAM 2022 result will be declared on March 22. IIT JAM is conducted to provide admission to candidates in MSc and other postgraduate courses offered at IITs and integrated PhD courses offered by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Several National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Centrally Funded Technical Institutes (CFTIs) also accept JAM scores for MSc admissions.

[“source=shiksha”]

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Education

The Principles of Effective Practice in Teaching Reading

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

These blogs will enable you to gain a better understanding of the potential barriers to reading children may face and identify strategies to overcome these potential barriers. We will explore the role that talk and language play when learning to read.

The Simple View of Reading is a good place to begin. The Rose Review of 2006 provided teachers with a model that attempts to represent the processes involved in reading. The diagram illustrates that there are two distinct processes: language comprehension and word recognition. In order to be a good reader who can tackle unfamiliar texts and make meaning from them, we need both good word recognition and good language comprehension. This model is useful when considering potential barriers as we can begin to group the barriers into the two specific areas of word recognition and language comprehension.

The simple view of reading

According to the DfE Teacher Assessment Framework, by the end of KS1 the expectation is that pupils working at the expected standard will be able to: read accurately most words of two or more syllables; read most words containing common suffixes; read most common exception words. In age-appropriate books, the pupil can: read most words accurately without overt sounding and blending, and sufficiently fluently to allow them to focus on their understanding rather than on decoding individual words; sound out most familiar words accurately, without undue hesitation. These statements are directly linked to word reading, rather than language comprehension. A child may be able to do all of these things through the use of word recognition alone. So, what might be the barriers for children in Year 1 and Year 2 in moving towards these expected outcomes? How can we best support those children who may not have reached this standard at the end of Key Stage 1 as they move through KS2?

Let’s track back from Year 2 to early on in the process of language acquisition. There are generally considered to be seven aspects of the first phase. In these early aspects of phonological awareness, children are learning to distinguish between sounds around them. In some cases, through careful interaction with children, practitioners may notice that some children are finding it difficult to distinguish between different sounds that may sound similar.

We may need to focus some children to the shapes that our mouths make and how the mouth shape changes with different sounds. These early stages also involve children in word play. Playing with rhyming words, alliterative words and playing with different voice sounds. If children move these early aspects too quickly, or have too few opportunities, then you may find that when it comes to oral blending and segmenting, they do not have sufficient practice to be able to effectively blend and segment orally. The skill of oral blending is an essential step in learning to read.

These building blocks provide essential foundations for children to begin blending phonemes when reading. Children who still find this difficult need additional practice, but we also need to make sure that we do not at the same time slow down their acquisition of phoneme-grapheme correspondence. For many children, these aspects of sound discrimination and phonological awareness will continue to be important as they begin to learn letters.

In July 2021, the DfE published a Reading Framework that added additional guidance to that in the National Curriculum. The Framework state that high-quality group or class teaching is an effective way of ensuring good progress for the majority of children. Practitioners will therefore be able to identify those children who may need additional support, and who may be in danger of falling behind. For these children, providing good quality group teaching, focusing on oral blending and sound discrimination will be a very worthwhile intervention.

This is dependent on very good assessment for learning to identify which children and what children can and cannot do on a day-to-day basis, as well as a rigorous tracking system involving regular checking. Within the framework, much of the guidance on the teaching of phonics is rooted in good Formative Assessment practice; for example, making sure that children what they are learning and using teacher assessment to determine the next steps. There is also an expectation that all children will participate throughout phonics sessions, and they give the example of ‘call and response’ to ensure that the most is made of the time available.

Later on in the Reading Framework, they caution against turn-taking strategies, which mean that some children are passively listening to other children, rather than actively participating. When considering barriers to reading, we need to consider how and when children choose to participate. Full participation, even for young children, is essential in helping them to apply their knowledge of the alphabetic code. Following the recommended sequence that you will be familiar with, Revisit and Review, Teach, Practice and Apply will support the children to connect the new knowledge with their prior learning, demonstrate new learning in bite-sized chunks and ensure that children are given opportunities to apply what they have learnt.

Jim Rose (2006) points out that, “developing children’s positive attitudes to literacy, in its broadest sense, from the earliest stage is very important. In the best circumstances, parents and carers, along with schools, do much to foster these attitudes.” Early reading experiences involving play, story, songs and rhymes are crucial, alongside high-quality phonics to develop word reading as well as reading comprehension.”

What we may think of as a pre-reading activity, helps to ensure that children have a wide exposure to print, for example: seeing their names, noticing labels, and hearing and seeing texts simultaneously, when stories and non-fiction texts are read to them. Well before children are able to read, they need to understand the idea that print carries meaning. All of these things will ensure that once they begin to read, children will stop overtly sounding out the words, and as it states in the statements for the expected standard by the end of Key Stage 1, they will be able to read most words accurately without overt sounding out and blending, and with sufficient fluency to allow them to focus on their understanding, rather than on decoding individual words. Children who do not do this as quickly as expected, may have missed out on the essential concept that print carries meaning, and therefore think that successful reading consists of sounding out, even when the word is known.

[“source=vnetcic”]

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Education

DAVID C. ANCHIN CENTER ONLINE COURSE PROVIDES TEACHERS WITH BEST PRACTICES FOR VIRTUAL INSTRUCTION

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

World map that shows where participants in the online course are from

With the rise of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, educators everywhere made a rapid transition towards online instruction―and for many of them, it was an experience they weren’t fully prepared for.

USF Alumna Cindy Porcelli, `98, a sixth-grade science teacher in Pasco County, described the weeks following spring break as an exciting, yet intimidating “dunk tank.” Her biggest concern, she said, was making sure her students received the best possible education while learning from their homes.

“I knew that once we got them on the bus and in my classroom, I had a 90 percent chance of making them successful,” Porcelli said. “But, without that, I had been asking myself: ‘How are we going to make this successful for them?’”

Driven to provide educators like Porcelli with the skills and tools they need to be successful while teaching online, James Hatten, PhD, an instructor in USF’s Instructional Technology program, collaborated with the David C. Anchin Center for the Advancement of Teaching to launch a free, online professional development series titled, “Effective Online Teaching.” The two-week-long course was created using an asynchronous format and welcomed more than 500 participants who were eager to sharpen their skills before the new school year.

Dr. Hatten, who also served as the course’s instructor, says individuals participated in one of three sessions navigated through two modules where they learned how to humanize their online teaching experience, create purposeful structure on their management platform and measure their success as online teachers with an assessment framework called the R.A.T.—the Replacement, Amplification and Transformation model, an educational technology integration framework that was developed by Dr. Joan Hughes from the University of Texas.

Upon starting the series, Dr. Hatten guided his students on the importance of personalizing their courses by having them share video introductions, join in on meaningful conversations and submit creative graphics that offered tips to students on their first day of class. Dr. Hatten also modeled the behavior he was teaching about to participants an example to follow in their own classrooms.

“Students should feel like they are in a learning community and not just interacting with content,” Dr. Hatten said. “I model structures and behaviors as a teacher in the course by being a very active participant in the online discussion boards, answering questions as quickly as possible over email or the chat function and by sending out reminders and course announcements every five days or so.”

Activities in the online series ranged from participants creating memes to posting responses on a designated discussion board called “The Teachers’ Lounge.” Lisa Albrecht, a fifth-grade educator in Lake Charles, Louisiana, said connecting with her peers through this forum allowed her to learn about the virtual tools she can use to help support her inclusive classroom.

“I asked questions like, ‘What resources can I use online for students with special needs?’ and many people responded,” Albrecht said. “It made me feel comfortable because I knew I wasn’t the only one thinking about it.”

Though Albrecht has enrolled in similar courses throughout her 30 years of teaching, there was one part of the course that stood out to her. At the end of each module, Dr. Hatten shared step-by-step videos that demonstrated how he created the module participants had just completed. This alone, she says, taught her the online teaching skills she couldn’t learn elsewhere.

“Other courses I took explained how to deliver material, but it did not explain how to create that module to get your material delivered,” Albrecht said. “You need to know the background set-up in order to get the information to the kids and this is honestly the only course where I’ve seen that taught.”

For Jeremy Blythe, a culinary arts teacher at Land O’ Lakes High School, enrolling in the course enabled him to better understand what virtual interactions should look like with his students.

“The biggest thing I learned about online teaching is how beneficial it is to not just have an introductory video, but also have everybody introduce themselves so that we all can get to know each other better,” Blythe said. “I think I undervalued how important that was―having to do it now for this class and seeing it from a student perspective helped a lot.”

As participants completed quizzes, listened to podcasts and submitted projects, Dr. Hatten posted specific questions on discussion boards that helped individuals reflect on their teaching practice and speak candidly about themselves.

In one instance, after asking his students to discuss their experience as virtual learners before taking the course, Dr. Hatten says he was able to recognize how necessary the experience was for those who enrolled.

“I’d say 50 percent of (participants) said that they haven’t taken an online class before and then they were asked to teach online,” Dr. Hatten said. “That’s like thinking about how many teachers you have in your life that have never gone to school before. So, even them just being in an online course is accomplishing something huge.”

When reflecting on her decision to take the course, Porcelli, who’s taught in Florida for more than 20 years, said she was eager to learn the online strategies and tools that came easy to others in her field. Having Dr. Hatten as her instructor, she says, enabled her to look at online teaching with a fresh perspective.

“I always thought of virtual learning as this mass assignment, but he made it personalized by adding components that drive student engagement,” Porcelli said. “It just opened up a new window to what a classroom should like, whether a student is sitting in a desk or at a computer.”

[“source=usf”]

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Education

Epic Outages of Edtech Tools Show K-12 Schools Are Vulnerable to Cyberattacks

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Epic Outages of Edtech Tools Show K-12 Schools Are Vulnerable to Cyberattacks

A recent cyberattack that affected the biggest school district in the country is a reminder of an increase in cybersecurity incidents at schools across the U.S. As such attacks become more common, schools may need to do more to build their ability to prevent attacks and to hold private vendors to high standards, experts say.

An “attempted security incident” this month knocked out many of Illuminate Education’s digital services, including an online gradebook, Skedula, and a related parent-focused platform, PupilPath, which are used by New York’s public school system. Service was out for several weeks, disrupting learning as the schools returned from the holiday break. And even now, some of the company’s other services appear to still be down, according to updates from the company.

Cyberattacks on schools are on the rise, according to the latest available report from the K-12 Security Information Exchange, a national nonprofit focused on cybersecurity and K-12 schools. There’s been a five-fold increase in incidents since 2016, with 1,180 reported incidents connected to U.S. public schools in that time. At least 128 school districts have seen repeat attacks.

The uptick is happening at a time of record spending on U.S. edtech: K-12 public schools in America spent somewhere between $26 billion and $41 billion annually before the pandemic, according to figures from the nonprofit EdTech Evidence Exchange.

The issue isn’t just a matter of inconvenience, but a potential threat to student privacy, especially in the case of digital gradebooks and other student information systems, experts point out.

“Cyber attacks are a growing problem in schools, and the harms to students and their families are not theoretical,” says Elizabeth Laird, director of Equity in Technology at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Low-Hanging Fruit

Although school districts are doing a decent job with what they have, they don’t have as many resources to throw at cybersecurity as private corporations do, which can make them look like low-hanging fruit to would-be attackers, says Tim Harper, a former chief technology officer for Seminole Public Schools in Sanford, Florida, and the current administrator-in-residence for Clever, a K-12 digital platform.

For many schools across the country, which require edtech to function, third-party vendors would be better equipped to handle cybersecurity, argues Jim Siegl, senior technologist at the Future of Privacy Forum. Many districts are small, and may only have a handful of staff for all of their technology operations.

So far, schools have responded by increasing training for teachers, though that training has focused more on student security than on how teachers themselves can prevent online intrusions. According to one Center for Democracy and Technology report, many teachers have received training on student privacy, fewer have received training on how to avoid phishing or ransomware scams meant to hoodwink them into giving up their personal information.

These days, any online system comes with tradeoffs, and risks, notes Doug Levin, the national director of the K-12 Security Information Exchange.

“When school districts adopt technology solutions for their operations, they are accepting cybersecurity risk—it faces every organization that relies on technology,” he says.

Not all the risk comes from computers within a school. The many outside systems that schools contract with aren’t immune from attacks, and are outside of a school’s control.

Even when schools outsource their cybersecurity to an outside firm, Levin adds, “it is merely shifting their risk to a third-party.”

For example, an attack against Finalsite, a software company used by schools across the country, affected around 5,000 school websites earlier this month. Levin notes that while Finalsite appears to have been forthright about the attack and its response, there are still questions about whether it could have done more to prevent it.

And companies have not always been candid when they’ve experienced a significant attack. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for instance, announced last year that it had fined Pearson, the London-based publishing company known for its textbooks, $1 million to settle charges that it had “misled investors about a 2018 cyber intrusion involving the theft of millions of student records, including dates of births and email addresses, and had inadequate disclosure controls and procedures.”

What schools can do, experts say, is to diligently vet the edtech they use. Specifically, schools should insist on contractual commitments to safety audits and prompt disclosures of security issues that may arise, Levin says.

Lack of National Consensus

The U.S. lacks a national consensus around what sort of protections parents, teachers and students should expect in terms of data privacy from school districts, experts including Levin and Harper say. In contrast, the European Union put in place the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, in 2018 which spells out the expectations around data protection and personal information.

U.S. states have begun to address the issue, however, and more than 100 student-privacy laws have been passed since 2013, many of which ban targeted advertising or data-selling—though fewer of those laws tackle training or meaningful security requirements. And the measures rarely provide extra funding to schools for security or privacy resources, experts point out.

[“source=edsurge”]

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Education

How to improve staff wellbeing and achieve the best for your school and pupils

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Staff wellbeing

How can we improve staff wellbeing to achieve the best for schools and pupils?  Here are my eight top tips, created in association with three inspirational school leaders.

1) Focus on your own wellbeing before anything else

This is a ‘must’! Look after your own wellbeing and everyone around you benefits.

It’s important to lead by example and practise what you preach if you are to truly enhance staff wellbeing, and as a result, the outcomes for your pupils.

Start by booking some thinking and reflection time each week and to focus on what you need to do for you, as well as those you lead. The quality of your thinking underpins your success – so make time for it.

2) Put a focus on what is going well

If you are like many leaders, teachers and staff I know, you probably end each day thinking about what you haven’t done and the things that have gone wrong.

Yet what about the many things you have done and your successes? We are either our own biggest cheerleader or critic.

So how can you flip this?

In her book ‘Positivity’, Barbara Frederickson a US psychologist revealed that we need a 3:1 positive to negative ratio to be emotionally well. Create a trigger – for example a phone alarm or post-it note on your steering wheel – to make sure when you ask yourself at the end of each day, “What did I do well?” or “What were my three biggest achievements.”

Repeat until it becomes your habit and share this with colleagues to help them too.

3) Make praise part of every day

Recognition improves engagement and performance. Schools are often great at shout-outs and staff messages. Yet they miss out on ‘in the moment’ praise. It is hard because so many staff are spread across classrooms, yet when done well, the impact can be better than a pay rise!

Set a goal to catch people doing things right and share this with other leaders. This means being in the present and spotting all those brilliant things that happen each day. Imagine the impact if you and other leaders all caught three people every day!

This is one of the fastest ways to build staff wellbeing into the school culture – people copy and it is contagious.

4) Measure staff wellbeing

If you want to make a difference to staff wellbeing, you must first understand where you are now and what needs to change.

Track staff data and run an evidence-based anonymous staff survey to provide scores, benchmarks and feedback. You can see how well you are doing in building a workplace environment where your staff can do their best work.

Share strengths and focus on recommended actions.

5) Focus on behaviours

Review your school values and agree with all staff what behaviours you would see if they were being lived. Start with the senior leadership team, make sure they are role models, then move to middle leaders, providing coaching and training to ensure everyone is fully engaged. Make them part of everything you do, including performance management and appraisals, and reinforce them through praise and holding staff to account.

6) View any changes through the lens of staff wellbeing

Before changing or implementing any new policies, procedures, or practices, consider them through the lens of staff wellbeing by asking the question: ‘What impact will this have on the wellbeing of colleagues and the outcomes for pupils?’

Remove anything that needs high energy or commitment and even where it delivers strong outcomes, make sure it is worth it!

Apply the ‘in/out’ rule. If you are going to add something new then you need to remove something too.

7) Train colleagues in efficient approaches

There will always be too much to do, so we have to quit trying to do it all and focus only on what is important!

The more efficient your staff are, the more time they will have to invest in the things that matter to the school and to themselves. Teach people how to prioritise, delegate, better manage themselves, their email, technology, their workload, and that perfection is over-rated.

Challenge them to set their hours and fit the work to these, rather than letting the work dictate the hours they work.

8) Ensure all meetings are necessary and effective

We have all attended meetings that start late, finish late, cover too much, cover agenda items not relevant to them, have unprepared attendees, or do not achieve a satisfactory outcome. Ask yourself:

Getting this right can have a big impact on the degree to which staff feel valued. They are giving up time, which they could use to better manage their own life balance.

[“source=gesseducation”]

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Education

Khan Academy is now available in Greek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Vietnamese!

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

illustration of a globe icon inside a speech bubble

We are excited to announce the launch of our newest Khan Academy language sites: Greek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Vietnamese! These teams have worked for many years to reach this milestone, and join over 30 other Khan Academy language sites to which we are still adding new translated content.

The majority of these sites are translated and maintained by volunteers and international nonprofit organizations – if you are interested in volunteering to translate for Khan Academy, learn more about our volunteer translator program.

A note from the Greek team

Khan Academy is now available in Greek! It offers learning material for primary education and specifically for Early Math, Kindergarten, and 1st & 2nd grades in elementary school. Work is underway for the remaining of the elementary school classes in mathematics, as well as in chemistry and physics for high school students. The  work has been coordinated and supported by the Mathaino non-profit organization. Our common goal is to bring Khan Academy’s platform to all Greek students and teachers in primary and secondary education, allowing them to maximize their college potential and beyond.

A note from the Latvian team

The Khan Academy has strengthened and inspired millions of pupils and students around the world. Now it’s time to enjoy it in Latvian as well. Around thirty enthusiastic people have been involved in the creation of this site, and we are very pleased that this project, a dream for many years, has now seen the light of day. The first course we give to those who study in Latvian is Arithmetic. Fractions and negative numbers are the topics of mathematics that often confuse those who did just fine in multiplication. Khan Academy will become your knowledgeable, patient, tireless teacher who will lead you through the skills at a pace that is acceptable to you. The effective Mastery system with which Khan Academy is so renowned will provide immediate feedback and regularly prepare individualized challenges.

The Khan Academy Latvian site has been created and lives thanks to people who are passionate about quality education. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact us: Khan Academy community in Latvia.

A note from the Lithuanian team

Today we have reached a major milestone that has taken us more than two years of work, a lot of patience, perseverance, and belief in the importance of this project. What makes us even prouder – we achieved it with zero funding, all thanks to the fantastic people who believe in the same idea and are unstoppable. Khan Academy is now available in Lithuanian!

We want to send some kudos to the amazing and most supportive International Khan Academy community who are always there for each other. Khan Academy brought us together for a common purpose, and our team has now grown into a non-profit organization Fondas 17 that will continue to deliver on Khan Academy’s mission and help reach eager learners and teachers in all corners of Lithuania.

A note from the Vietnamese team

We are The Vietnam Foundation – the Khan Academy’s Vietnamese language advocate; and a non-profit organization with a mission of improving the lives of the Vietnamese people through education. We have been working rigorously for the last two years to localize the Math content for students in Vietnam, with over 10,000 hours of contribution from volunteers and experts. Our next priority is to make it widely available and accessible to primary and secondary students and teachers, at the same time continue to localize Physics, Biology and Chemistry contents for secondary and high school level.

A note from the Kyrgyz team

We are so proud to announce that Kyrgyz language joins the 50+ languages of Khan Academy. Within a year, our team has made a great result in localizing Khan Academy into the Kyrgyz language. We would like to thank everyone for making this possible. As of September 2021, the Khan Academy platform is now available in Kyrgyz.

We consider it a true honor to be able to offer tens of thousands of Kyrgyz students access to quality education totally for free. Thanks to the great contribution of our volunteers, teachers, advisors, and many anonymous donors, who have made this possible. Hereby, we also want to convey our thanks to all individual donors, companies and organizations who believe in the power of education and donate without any doubt. Your generous support helped us to grow and keep our core operations running. We promise to continue to earn your confidence in us and in our project. More is coming.

A note from the Kazakh team

After 3 years of a dozen volunteer translators’ and our organizational team’s work Khan Academy is available in Kazakh. This content is very important for Kazakh speaking population, because we have very limited quality educational resources that are available for everyone. We have already finished translating early math and are working on computer science, chemistry, physics and biology and are working hard to add more content to our site. We want to offer more content to our Kazakh speaking learners and teach them self-education through the Khan Academy platform.  Our aim is to provide the chance to each Kazakh speaking learner, no matter where they come from, to fulfill their potential, and to experience the love of learning.

[“source=khanacademy”]

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